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In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Dushanbe Teahouse, the eight Boulder sister city groups were invited to host a reception for their key members on consecutive weeks starting in mid-May. A special reception for the Mante group occurred on May 21. It was a beautiful afternoon reception for Mante board members, teachers from past teacher exchanges and former administrators from Boulder Community Hospital.

During the coming week the Teahouse will offer a special Mexican style three-course dinner to all patrons of the restaurant.

This article in Mantex-Eso from earlier this month congratulates Boulder-Mante Board Member Erick Diaz for his good management of the Cruz Roja of Mante, which is in the black for the first time in many years. Good job, Erick!

Over 10 years ago, Jesper Frant, a high school student from Boulder, Colorado, went as an exchange student to sister city Mante, Mexico for a year. Today, Jesper recounts how life changing the experience was.

It’s impossible to overstate how pivotal my year in Mexico was in shaping my worldview and setting my goals for the future. Prior to my year abroad, I had traveled quite a bit with my parents and attended bilingual school. I knew Spanish and was comfortable traveling in foreign countries, but looking back, nothing could have prepared me for the experience of being fully immersed in another language, another family and another culture.

Not only did my experience studying abroad help shape my worldview, it has guided many of my most important life choices: to stay involved with the Boulder-Mante Sister Cities Committee, to study international affairs at the University of Colorado, to write my honors thesis on the plight and potential Mexican migrants living in the U.S., and to pursue a graduate degree in international development. But the most fundamental personal change I experienced as a result of my year abroad was developing a sense of empathy for those who – simply because of where they are born – cannot afford basic healthcare, a quality education, or even nutritious food and clean water.

Boulder and Mante share many things in common, but at no time were the differences more apparent than during the Boulder Community Hospital’s annual medical campaign. Volunteering as a translator during my year abroad, I saw thousands of people from hundreds of miles around Mante turn out for the opportunity to meet with the “gringo” doctors.

One day, an elderly blind man walked into the make-shift eye clinic to which I’d been assigned. The American doctors immediately diagnosed him with advanced cataracts, which had clouded his vision for over a decade. His condition had gone untreated due to a combination of insufficient access to properly trained medical professionals and limited availability of modern medical technology.

Guided by his granddaughter, the man was immediately moved to the front of the line, and within fifteen minutes his cataracts were removed and his vision was restored. I will never forget the look on his face, tears streaming from behind protective glasses, as he walked out of the operating room without the assistance of his granddaughter. “What a miracle. God bless you,” he repeated in a trembling voice as he hugged each American nurse and doctor.

Had this man been born in the U.S. his condition would have been treated years earlier. Unfortunately, the world is filled with this kind of basic inequality, but I believe that with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work – as economist Jeffrey Sachs pointedly put it – “extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but our time.”

Jesper was later elected to be a youth board member of the Boulder Mante Sister City Committee and has remained a board member ever since.

Lester Lurie has ordered a fresh batch of t-shirts with Florian’s mural on the back and the simple text on the upper left front saying Boulder/Mante Sister Cities. He has 25 small, 25 medium, 25 large, and 25 extra large. A donation of $20 a piece (or more of course) would be appreciated. This is the beginning of fundraising efforts for next year’s student trip to Mante.

“I was a child of the ’60s, so people like Kennedy were very inspirational to me,” said Lopez, 59. “Asking ‘not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,’ was quite impressionable.”

Since graduating from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1991, Lopez has gone on to start his own practice and devote countless hours to service. Lopez received the 2009 Pacesetter Award in Community Service because of the range and passion of his civic contributions.

There is always hub-bub on Saturday morning. The dignitaries, the press, the DIF persons all gather near the podium on the lawns of the “La Escuela Enfermeria” or the Nursing Schoo1. We celebrated the opening of Brigada Medica XIX…our 19th year in Cd. Mante. At 10:15, the procession started down the center aisle. It included the Dr. Davkd Rodriquez, Mante Presidente, Hector Lopez, Secretary of Health Juan Guillermo Manzur Arzola from Tamp State, Mayors from five near-by referral cities, Dr Silvia Elena de la Garza de Lopez president of DIF, and, of course Sr. Mike Moran.

Speeches ranged from 2 to 15 minutes, and included warm words of welcome with the belief that “Gratitude is a Memory of the Heart” and that “Languages nor distances can support this humanistic bond.” More than 5,000 patients have already signed in. Each message was easily understood with the simultaneous translation to English.

LET THE WORK AND MIRACLES BEGIN!

Since he lost both legs in an accident, Manuel uses a wheelchair. Today he came not for himself, but for his father. His father may have had a stroke and now has balance problems. But here’s what is amazing. Manuel supports himself repairing computers. But, he is on a Handicap Basketball team which came in second place for the national competition for all of Mexico! What an achievement.

Dave in GYN commented that as a first-timer, there is no one here to show him the ropes. The good side of this is, anything he does is OK. At 4:00 he still had a line of women waiting. This year there is only one exam table instead of two, which obviously slows the process of seeing women.

Can it be a new epidemic? I don’t think so, but peds is seeing a lot of ventral hernias.

What a blessing it is to have Dra. Moreno Bringas here from Tampico. An oncologist, she works with women with breast cancer. She is unhurried and thorough seeing and talking with women and examining them. A group of women watched the video she showed about self-examination and early diagnosis of breast cancer. She will be here tomorrow (Sunday) and has also been an inspiration for the formation of a breast cancer support group here.

Each year, Magda an OR Nurse, and I have fitted 10-12 women with prostheses. During the year, Magda works with an additional 10-12 women. My source for donated prostheses has gone. Women we saw today are using rolled up socks or plastic cups. Here’s great news: DIF has offered to pay for prostheses (about $30-$50 each) for women living in Mante who cannot afford to buy their own.

Before and after visits to the general physicians, many families and children stopped to learn from our dietician Elizabeth and student nurses about daily habits to help reduce the likelihood and effects of diabetes. With children running around the nursing school grounds, every bit of education will help reduce the likelihood of more diabetes cases.